We can only live life to the full if we accept that everything is indeed broken, in the long run anyway. And that means that brokenness is not an aberration but a central fact of life, one which enables us to appreciate its transitory, flawed nature. “There is a crack in everything,” sang another musical poet, Leonard Cohen, “that’s how the light gets in.”
ReadDeath and taxes may well be the only inevitable facts of life, but a broken heart is almost as universal and often seems equally beyond our control. Still, even if we can’t determine whether we suffer or not, sometimes we can choose exactly how we do so.
ReadMorality is built on aspirations not expectations. Treating someone well is not conditional on the assumption that they would reciprocate if the roles were reversed, simply on the belief that it would be good if they did. If this were not the case, morality as we know it would not exist.
ReadTo correct the hyperactivity of the age, perhaps we need to invert the wisdom of the past and insist that[…]
ReadIf the French existentialists had been offered more options in those left-bank cafés, would they have had enough energy left[…]
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